The "Idle Janie" Journal - Days 1 through 5
Photo credit: David Bryan, Barcelona, Spain October 2017
The “Idle Janie” Journal - Day 1
"Janie, your brain needs a treadmill!"
It’s official - I’m now unemployed! Along with close to 40 million of my fellow Americans, I will be filing for unemployment insurance, for the first time in my life. What an absolutely staggering metric. FORTY MILLION. And I have a feeling those numbers are going to get worse pretty soon, as numerous nonprofits are probably poring over their books and thinking, “we’re just not going to be able to sustain this anymore.”
No more PPP from the government. No stimulus checks SINCE APRIL. Dear Government: WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR A HANDOUT. We have paid into this system, with our tax dollars. OUR money. Not yours. Please get your partisanshit together and figure out how to help all the people who are struggling. And the potentially millions more who are about to find themselves also struggling.
I’m now one of those. I have worked for a nonprofit organization (church) for 12 years. TWELVE YEARS. At one place. I played “the game,” I woke up to an alarm every morning, showered and brushed my teeth, and went to a building outside of my home to trade my creativity, education, and experience for a paycheck. I played well with others, respected my superiors, and did what I was told. I did everything ‘they’ tell you to do in order to be an “important productive member of society.” Now it’s all gone. *POOF* Just like that, thanks to external factors that nobody had control over. (And which our government obviously doesn’t even have AN INTEREST in trying to control.)
Guess I should have just gone into stock trading apparently, as Wall Street seems to have done pretty A-OK during this time of federal fiduciary failure. But business bores me, and I doubt I would have lasted 12 years in that field.
I’ll apply for UI later today, and hope that money hasn’t already dried up considering the number of folks out there who are in the same predicament. And I’ll be looking for a new job — although the market isn’t exactly booming right now.
BUT - it’s all about perspective, right? And even though I’m now without a job, I shall not refer to myself as “out of work.” I’m just “out of paid work.”
No, I AM NOW OFFICIALLY A FULLTIME MUSICIAN AND WRITER. 
I actually did this once before — after finishing graduate school, I spent a number of years pursuing music in NYC. (Which I was only able to do thanks to those kind folks at Citibank who lent me all that money LOL.) So, at least I know what to expect. And, more importantly, I know HOW to do this. How to make good use of my time. How to not be lazy. I’ll be honest, last time I didn’t make the best use of my time. I slept and drank a lot of it away, and was basically disorganized, depressed, and bored.
That time period actually did produce some good fruit though, including the lyrics to a song posted below. Whenever I would perform this, I would always "ironically" introduce it by saying “This song is definitely NOT autobiographical. It’s about a friend of mine named ‘Janie.’ No really. It’s not about me!”
I’m officially coming out of the Janie closet today. That song WAS about me. I’ll just be sure not to repeat those same mistakes this time.
Love to all of you, and best of luck in all things!
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“Idle Janie”
Chorus:
Janie your brain needs a treadmill
You’re thinking about things too much
Maybe you need to remember to stay calm or you might lose your touch with reality
And you’ll go crazy dilly dallity hazy, cause nothin makes sense anymore
So just take your time don’t you hurry in a flurry of worry
And someday you might even the score.
Poor little Janie, she just can’t seem to find any substantial gainful employment
So she spends all her time scheming up nefarious ways to depose and destroy the government
She says if we all just refuse to pay our taxes and pick up our axes and guns
We’ll storm them at dawn as they yawn upon waking to find a revolution already begun
Chorus
You’re so lazy Janie, always staying in bed past noon saying once again you’ve got the flu
You spend all your time in front of the TV watching reruns of NYPD Blue
You tell me that TNT sure does know drama, well does your mama know, have you told her
How you wasted a promising legal career opting instead to watch Law and Order
Chorus
You’re so crazy Janie, now you’re spending the rest of your life doing your scheming from a mental ward
It wouldn’t have come to this if you’d just been productive all of those times you were bored
Janie your brain needs a treadmill!
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Thanks for humoring me and getting this far! If you like what you read, and want to support my fledgeling career as a writer and musician, you can drop a few bucks in the virtual tip jar. It all adds up!
Venmo: @David-Bryan10026
Paypal: paypal.me/davidbryanandfriends
💀
Photo credit: David Bryan, Barcelona, Spain October 2017
“Brother, can you spare a dime?”
We’ve all heard it, at some point in our lives. Someone asking for our spare change. Homelessness and unemployment have been around as long as human civilization. But at what point in our human history was this bifurcation created — the “haves” and the “have nots”? Before money was even invented, we just had food. That and water is ALL that a human being needs to survive. Sure, it’s nice to have a roof over your head, a car, an iPod, and a nail salon where you can go get a pedicure. But, at its most base level, ALL WE NEED IS FOOD. Apologies to the Beatles, they were wrong. Although a little love is also a good thing. Some basic health care would be nice, too. 
So throughout history, though, some have had “a huge spread” at dinner time, while others were forced to subsist off the crumbs that fell from the table. WHY? What is it that makes one person supposedly more “worthy” than another, in terms of the amount of food they are allowed to consume? We can’t say it has anything to do with education, because this problem has been around since the dawn of civilization.
Here’s the thing — and I’m obviously not on the precipice of some major discovery that is going to change how our world works: WE DON’T NEED MONEY. In its current physical (or even digital) form, money can provide ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help a human being stay alive. Zilch. Paper money can be used for kindling, to be sure, but other than that, it is ontologically WORTHLESS. So, as we delve deeper into the oncoming despair of a probable second depression, in which the chasm between the rich and the poor grows ever so much more wide, we are all going to be hearing more and more AND MORE of that initial catchphrase above. Momma’s gotta eat, and needs to feed her children. But momma can’t get a job. Because all the jobs are basically disappearing before our eyes.
Upon losing the lion’s share of my musician’s income, followed by losing my full-time job, I have been blessed by numerous people who have contributed to my “virtual tip jar” whenever I livestream music from my apartment. However, I recognize that ANY of those folks who have been contributing (or would feel moved to contribute in the future) to my bread basket are just as likely to lose THEIR jobs. Which means the tips will eventually run out (as will unemployment insurance eventually), and then we’re all out on the street panhandling in tandem, in hopes of staving off hunger just one more day.
The thing is: THE FOOD IS THERE EITHER WAY. It’s just that over centuries, we’ve created such a complex system of, well, EVERYTHING, that there is no way to get that food to the hungry mouths without 100 different people clamoring to exchange currency that doesn’t even really exist in the first place. We print money out of thin air, and assign “value” to it. (Hello, gold standard, whatcha knowin? You gotta keep that money flowin!) (Although, what the hell is GOLD worth anymore anyway, as it is also inedible?) And then we compete with each other to HOARDE as much of that money as we can, everyone else be damned.
Well, the house of cards is about to crumble. What little “money” is left is quickly being snatched up by those that already had most of it to begin with. Which leaves the rest of us with NOTHING.
Everyone’s gotta eat. The food is there. Why not just cut out the middle man?
If we can’t figure out a way to cut out those greedy middlemen (as well as those at the top, obviously), to provide the most basic of human needs to those who need it — then we’re left with one, and only one, option:
Eat the rich.
Looks like we might get that zombie apocalypse after all. 
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Thanks for reading. If you like what you read, and want to support my fledgeling career as a writer and musician, you can drop a few bucks in the virtual tip jar. It all adds up!
Venmo: @David-Bryan10026
Paypal: paypal.me/davidbryanandfriends
Photo credit: David Bryan, Uzes, France October 2017
Independence Day
Here we are, yet again, on the eve of our nation’s celebration of Independence Day. The day that we declared FREEDOM from the constraints of the British Monarchy almost 250 years ago. It’s good to know that we live in a free country, that we have the freedom to do whatever we want. That we all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
There’s just one problem, obviously: said freedom — at that time — didn’t really apply to ALL Americans. And, to be honest, 250 years later it doesn’t seem that we yet have the algorithms correct.
As our national headlines over the last month have made demonstrably clear, there is a STRONG feeling — among Americans themselves — that this mandate never has, doesn’t, and never SHOULD apply to ALL Americans. It seems like every day there is a new “Karen” video in our newsfeeds. Every few days there is a new video of, or headline about, law enforcement officials either harassing, physically abusing or outright killing yet another person of color, usually with impunity. And at least once a week there is a new story about how the federal government is basically doing everything in its power to further disenfranchise ANYONE who isn’t straight, white and rich.
Straight.
White.
Rich.
There’s your trifecta, and ostensibly THOSE are the only people to whom “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” truly applies.
Translated: those in power; those that have most of the money; those that make all of the decisions and laws that apply to everyone else. (Even when, in many cases, those very laws DON’T apply to them.)
And, to be honest, lately it seems to also lean towards social-political affiliation as well. Meaning, if you have a problem with the “straight white rich people” who make all the decisions and laws, then you’re most likely out of the club as well.
Need an example? PEACEFUL PROTESTORS. (These folks ARE NOT the same as the so-called “rioters” in the news — but that’s a different story for a different day!)
DO YOU HONESTLY THINK YOU HAVE THE CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED RIGHT TO PEACEFULLY ASSEMBLE AND PROTEST THAT WHICH YOU SEE AS SYSTEMIC INJUSTICE?
Sorry, but no. You don’t. Do a simple google search related to police misconduct or suppression vis-a-vis the George Floyd movement sweeping the nation, and you’ll quickly learn that you do NOT, in fact, have the right to peacefully assemble to protest. And this goes back to Occupy Wall Street. And Kent State. I’m sure others could provide numerous more examples, but there’s just 3 spanning the last 50 years.
The thing is, that protest movement has been picking up steam. The “have nots” are becoming more and more “woke” to the fact that the “haves” are calling the shots, have been calling them for years, and that THEY ARE ONLY WORKING FOR THEMSELVES TO HAVE MORE. From public policy to law to economic policy to judicial decisions to tax codes to penal codes to educational standards to job interviews to lending practices and decisions — everything everything EVERYTHING is stacked in favor of the very few.
Well, like I said in one of my earlier posts, the number of “haves” is rapidly decreasing. And the number of “have nots” is growing exponentially, especially during this coronavirus crisis. Do “those” in power REALLY think they’re going to continue to get away with the status quo???? And that the rest of us will just throw up our hands and say “Oh well”????
A reckoning is coming. Maybe not tomorrow, but it’s gonna happen. And the REAL Americans are finally going to fully claim their independence.
Enjoy your hotdogs tomorrow. And please wear a mask.
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Thanks for reading. If you like what you read, and want to support my fledgeling career as a writer and musician, you can drop a few bucks in the virtual tip jar. It all adds up!
Venmo: @David-Bryan10026
Paypal: paypal.me/davidbryanandfriends
Photo credit: David Bryan, La Croisille-sur-Briance, France May 2018
“The boar’s head as I understand is the fairest dish in all the land!”
Happy 4th of July, y’all! I guess many of you have already fired up your grills, getting ready for the big family feast? As you’ll hear me say often in these journal posts, I’m not really going to be cracking any cosmic codes here. Most of what I will have to say — as is the case with most people writing about anything at any time — is not uncharted territory. Someone else has already said it. But perhaps the payoff in regurgitating material gleaned from others is that maybe, just maybe, I can enlighten at least ONE new person who has never entertained the subject matter at hand. Today’s subject matter is MEAT!
Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE a good hamburger. That, with a side of fries, lots of condiments, and a chilled 8-9% IPA, is all I need to put me in my happy place. I am what I would call “conditionally omnivorous.” Meaning, I was raised to eat meat, and have probably succumbed to countless claims that meat is NEEDED. Protein, in particular, is something for which the body begs. And meat is the best source for that. Or so we’re told.
I am however, at heart, a wannabe vegetarian — more than that burger, I love the idea of abstaining from eating meat altogether, for health reasons and environmental reasons, but mostly for compassionate reasons.
So on this national holiday, I ask the question: why do ALL national holidays have to revolve around the slaughtering of innocent animals? Yes, of course most Americans ingest much meat throughout the course of their annual diet. Some have been programmed since birth to believe that meat must be present at every single meal (“three squares a day”); others at least once a day; and still some (like me) TRY to eat vegetarian meals on a regular basis, but still include meat at least every other day or even just twice a week.
BUT - as soon as it’s time to celebrate a national holiday, families across the land gas up the grills, stir the spits, and overload the ovens. Isn’t it just a bit . . . peculiar . . . that meat is mandated just because we have a day off to “celebrate”? Think about it: for Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, the traditional cookout fare is hot dogs and hamburgers. And, probably historically speaking, most folks will even eat one of each on this “special” occasion. (Seriously - how many other times throughout the year do you go to a restaurant and order a hamburger AND a hot dog?) Thanksgiving is the one day a year that we dedicate to the genocide of ONE particular species of animal en masse, as we all have been conditioned to crave turkey — as well as the tryptophan-induced slumber it supposedly produces. December 24th brings the Christmas ham, or for the more “elegant” perhaps a Cornish game hen. Followed the next morning for many Americans by the sausage, egg, and cheese casserole — or at least a side serving of bacon. And then of course there’s New Year’s Eve, when we eat ALL the meats (AND our various versions of mead ), as we have one last chance to really indulge and intoxicate ourselves before we begin the year anew with an ephemeral exercise routine that really lasts only until the next culturally-conditioned carnivore-fest.
Oh! And don’t forget the non-holiday national pastimes that are so meat-centric: chicken wings for Super Bowl Sunday, pepperoni and sausage pizza for the Oscars, burgers at the bar throughout March Madness, the traditional Easter ham, hotdogs at the ballpark during the dog days of summer, etc. etc. etc.
I understand celebrating our holidays, and I love a party as much as the next person. I guess today, as I get ready to go to a cookout, I was just wondering how bizarre it is that all of these celebrations have to revolve around the slaughter of sentient beings. I’d like to suggest we begin to divest ourselves of this brainwashed behavior. We can still eat meat, each as we see fit — but let’s not let advertisers dictate our behavior. That indelible indoctrination, which we cast on our kids as soon as they’re old enough for solid food, is just as systemically silly as racism. Children are not BORN thinking that the pigment of a person’s skin matters. They also aren’t born believing that chicken wings are absolutely essential for sports. We are taught these boorish behaviors.
I believe that if we can expunge these expectations around meat being mandated for the holidays, then fewer animals will end up being slaughtered overall annually. This step gets us NOWHERE close to where we need to move as a culture with respect to our factory farming of animals, billions of whom needlessly suffer in close confines for a very short existence only to be inhumanely exterminated en route to our dinner tables. Ideally, we would ALL at least REDUCE the amount of meat in our daily diets. You don’t need animal flesh for every single meal!! This will reduce overall demand, make the environment cleaner, make us healthier, and start to diminish the senseless killings.
There are — for the record — HUMANE ways to treat animals that are raised for food. Check out Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” for starters. That book is, to date, the most important book I have ever read.
I’m not there yet, but I do hope one day to finally and fully abstain from my participation in these barbaric practices. I was conditioned to crave carne. I just need to recondition myself and my taste buds. Truth be told, some of the tastiest dishes I’ve ever encountered were full-blown vegan. Anybody got leads on any vegan communal collectives out there? Let me know if they’re taking applications!
I just don’t know how much longer I can look my cats in the eye, with the knowledge of what I had last night for dinner. Because the idea that it’s okay to eat some animals and not others is just plain stupid.
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Thanks for reading. If you like what you read, and want to support my fledgeling career as a writer and musician, you can drop a few bucks in the virtual tip jar. It all adds up!
Venmo: @David-Bryan10026
Paypal: paypal.me/davidbryanandfriends
Photo credit: David Bryan, Lisbon, Portugal November 2018
“Musings of a madman”
PLEASE!!! I NEED HELP FROM ALL OF MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS!!!
Here we are, day 5 of my new life as a full-time musician — AND WRITER!
I absolutely LOVE the written word. I love sitting down, listening to what the spirit speaks to me, and then just going all-in free-falling into the void of verbiage, the vast area of adjectives, the nuances of nouns, and all the other grammatical gimmickry. (Those who have read some of my posts have already seen my innate love of alliteration. 😉 )
In my heart of hearts, I am, simply put, A CREATIVE PERSON. I can’t do visual art to save my life, but over the years I’ve realized my creativity knows no other bounds. It feeds my very soul — and with at least my music, I’ve been told by numerous folks that it feeds their souls as well! So now that I am no longer gainfully employed, I am hoping to tap into more of that creative potential with which I have only flirted for the past two decades.
Mind you, during this new phase of my life, I will have my music to focus on as well, at which I have even arguably been successful over the years (at least in terms of experience, accomplishment, and some exposure — although not financially! [Hopefully that is going to change, and REAL soon!]) But, let me tell you: I would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to also produce some financial fruit through my thinking; to capitalize on capturing the written word; to enjoy more than just journaling.
If you skip up to day 1 of this journal, you’ll see the modus operandi of these daily written words. But, you should also understand that THIS particular project is just a means to motivate my mental state — something to keep me on track in terms of personal productivity, so that I don’t go insane in idleness. I actually have a daily checklist I have created for this new era of my life, which I’ll be sharing with you all shortly. So stay tuned! But for THIS project, I am limiting myself to either 2-3 pages or 1 hour, whichever is shorter. Otherwise, I’ll end up overthinking, overanalyzing, requiring of myself too much research, fact-checking, eternally editing the entries and producing way too much daily stress that I know it won’t last very long. This will leave numerous other hours during the day to pursue not only my music and other interests, but then also allows for a SOLID amount of time to devote to MORE FOCUSED writing.
HERE IS WHERE I NEED YOUR HELP! Do ANY of you have connections to ANYONE in the field of writing, publishing, etc.? Books, journals, blogs, magazines, columns, etc.? I’d take something full-time, part-time, freelance, anything. If it will garner an audience, I’ll even start with an unpaid internship. It’s just that I remember watching “Sex and the City,” and thinking WHAT A LIFE!!! I’d cherish just having a daily or weekly column that would pay the bills while doing what I love! Or, think of someone like Andy Rooney — just looking at culture, and getting paid to call it like he sees it.
Most of you probably haven’t even read much of what I have produced, but I feel it is pretty diverse and objectively interesting, and I would probably entertain writing about just about anything. Obviously I’d prefer to “do my own thing,” but as I want to pursue this craft as one of my sources of income, the sky is really the limit in terms of subject matter.
I have, to date, at least BEGUN the following projects — NONE of which came to fruition, due to never having enough free time because of having to keep a full-time job:
* A novel
* A work of nonfiction — ironically, about the “end of the world”
* A script for a Broadway play
* An International travel blog, documenting my worldwide journeys — with an impressive array of photos to accompany
* An autobiography — because I looked back at my life and thought, “I must, objectively speaking, have lived one of the more interesting lives in existence on this planet right now.” I don’t say that to boast or compare — there is just NO way that most people on the face of this earth have had the sum total of experiences that I have in my short time in this plane of existence? And maybe just maybe there would be an audience that would take an interest in “my story.”
On top of that, I have already produced the following, to completion — although none of it has really seen much in the way of an audience:
* 2 master’s theses, both for Religious Studies degrees (one of which was a formal study of “Grateful Dead Theology,” portions of which have been published)
* A 36,000-word post-grad school informal blog continuing my thoughts on Grateful Dead theology
* A blog (with 35 entries to date, over many years) sort of similar to this current one — but more focused with no time limit, with a wide range of subject matter
* A 16,000-word travel memoir about a lifesaving spiritual road trip I took
* One or two other things I KNOW I’ve written about, but can’t remember (I don’t have my external hard drive with me right now )
So there you have it. I’ve written and made public a BUNCH of different things on a bunch of different topics — I just don’t really have an audience, and don’t really know how to go about getting one. Please don’t tell me I “just need an agent.” THIS IS WHY I AM POSTING THIS REQUEST! I NEED YOU TO HELP ME FIND THAT AGENT! I’m a creative person, not a business savvy marketing guru. Artists produce art! Agents or marketers or producers handle the distribution! Financiers or patrons foot the bill!
So there you have it. I have the product, I just don’t know what to do with it. Actually, the same could be said of my music. Technically speaking, I am nationally known as BOTH a writer AND a musician. But, when only several hundred people have heard of you, it’s hard to get any traction in either of these fields.
So, please, friends: help me out SO THAT I CAN DO WHAT I FEEL I AM ON THIS EARTH TO DO, AND NOT JUST HAVE TO REVERT TO GETTING ANOTHER FULL TIME JOB JUST TO PAY THE STUPID BILLS.
Or, maybe my writing just sucks, and that’s why I don’t have an audience???? 😂
I don’t know, you tell me. Here’s a taste of some of my writing, linked below. Feel free to be honest! I don’t wanna waste my time and yours!
* Waits for the inevitable crickets, and maybe 4 likes and 2 comments, because nobody is even reading this shit, thereby proving my entire point....🙄
http://cdbsblog.blogspot.com/?m=1
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Thanks for reading. If you like what you read, and want to support my fledgeling career as a writer and musician, you can drop a few bucks in the virtual tip jar. It all adds up!
Venmo: @David-Bryan10026
Paypal: paypal.me/davidbryanandfriends
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